Ok, I think it's time to try and put SketchCrawl to good use. I think it would be wonderful to raise some money for a worthy cause with our drawing marathons, like we did with SketchCrawl 7 (in conjunction with Danny Gregory http://www.dannygregory.com/) for the Pakistani Earthquake relief efforts.

So ... I've been looking around for a good cause to donate to ... and I came across this really interesting video, please give it a watch.:

Emergency is an independent, neutral and non-political Italian organization founded in order to provide free, high quality medical and surgical treatment to the civilian victims of war, landmines and poverty.

There are few things in life that deeply truly matter, sharing is one of them ... and my wish has been for SketchCrawl to enable people from around the globe to come together and share a passion for drawing ... the second thing I truly value in life is GIVING.
There is no better reason to come together as a drawing world community than to give.
We could raise some money together with our drawings and donate it to Emergency.

What do you think ? We could work out the best way to raise funds ... last time we were trying to set up a fundraising similar to an aids run. Where each runner/sketchcrawler looks for sponsors that will donate perhaps $5 per drawing. If each of us can get 4 or 5 sponsors at the end of the crawl I think this could work ...

An added thing I'd be willing to do is to auction all the watercolors from the day, with all proceeds going to the fundraiser.

Let me know your thoughts ...

Here is more information on "Emergency" from their website.

Emergency : Who we are

In todayÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s conflicts 90% of victims are civilians.
Every year war destroys the lives of millions of people around the world.

Emergency is an independent, neutral and non-political Italian organization founded in order to provide free, high quality medical and surgical treatment to the civilian victims of war, landmines and poverty.

Emergency promotes a culture of solidarity, peace and respect for human rights.

The work of Emergency around the world is possible thanks to the help of thousands of volunteers and supporters.

Last edited by enrico on Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:54 am, edited 2 times in total.

Absolutely, great idea Enrico.
It's hard to appreciate what the realities are in some parts of the world, and not be moved, to be compelled, to some kind of action. And here we have a fantastic way for sketchers worldwide to put in together and contribute to an organisation which is actively working to reduce the civilian casualties of war.

I think it would be a good idea to get sponsors per-drawing or per-page. I know it'll certainly give me more incentive to keep on drawing as the day wears on. I remember in highschool similar fundraisers allowed the sponsors to choose how much they would donate per-whatever, so you'd have a range of donations and more people donating. Or maybe a fixed amount would be better...

Oh and an auction of your (and Ronnie's too perhaps?) watercolors would I'm sure add a good amount to the grand total :)

Thanks Andy ... great suggestions ... and it's great to hear that there's interest in doing something like this ...
I like your idea of getting sponsors to pledge an amount of their choice per drawing ... I think we could even suggest a some tiered sponsoring ... like:
Junior Sponsor $1 per drawing
Great Sponsor $5 per drawing
Fantastic Sponsor $10 per drawing

Martha, I think that's a great idea ... in fact I just had a nice discussion with an editor and publisher friend that would actually like to figure out a way to put out a book regarding the SketchCrawl ... we just brainstormed a bit about it and I think there's some great potential.
We've wanted to make a SketchCrawl book for a while now, this could be a great opportunity to do so ... and also of course have part of the sales benefit Emergency ...

We could put out a call for submissions of sketches from that the day ... and also photos ... the book could be all about retelling the sketchcrawl day ... people coming together to draw and give around the world ...
We could have an ftp where people submit their favorite sketches and photos ... even thoughts ...
The editing of it will probably be the hard part ... but I think it can be done !

I think it's exciting ! This is gonna be great if we can all come together !

As long as you're putting art and fundraising together, you could consider having a small gallery show of all the best hand-picked sketches and collect some donations at the door. I guess it depends if you're able to find a venue like a comic shop or someplace that wouldn't mind hosting.

Wow - a real SketchCrawl book; that's a great idea. It's such an amazing phenomena. I think people would love to read about how it started, how it's grown, people doing it all over the world, etc. And sketches, of course!

Definitely, a SketchCrawl book with stuff from around the world is an awesome idea.. really capture the spirit of sketchcrawling - plus more opportunity for fundraising and also for getting sketchcrawling more widespread